#so we've got gale the cat

[galedekarios]

epilogue outfit descriptions

i finally looked at the item descriptions of gale's epilogue outfit and they're so cute:

embroidered ensemble a delicately-embroidered outfit inspired by the decorative spine of sharro's 'a sommelier's guide to the forgotten realms.'

i love how this not only ties into gale's love for books (his library in his tower in waterdeep, wooing the protag with a book in his act 2 romance scene, enchanting his camp clothes to smell like a library, among many other instances) with gale (presumably) commissioning an outfit based on the binding of a book, but it also highlights his love for wine:

(Gale: Sembian wine, Cormyrian ball, Waterdhavian conversation. It's the little things you miss while on the road.

Gale: I have a cat, a library, and a weakness for a good glass of wine.

etc, etc, etc)

i think it's very cute to imagine him going to a tailor in waterdeep with the book in question in hand, showing them the decorative spine of it, and asking for an ensemble inspired by it.

elegant slippers these bejewelled slippers were made for sipping good wine among even better company.

i just really love this for gale, someone who is so gregarious and full of love, after so long of being isolated and alone, during what was arguably the worst time of his life.

he goes from:

Player: You don't have any friends? Gale: Sadly not. If I'm being entirely honest, my social circle is rather small. More of a dot. Or a pinhead. Gale: I've got aquaintances, certainly. Plenty of colleagues. But friends? Those are precious indeed. Gale: I hope, though we've only known each other for a short time, I might be able to count you among that number?

Player: You must have been lonely, with only Tara for company... Gale: Sometimes. But I imposed it upon myself, after all. I set up enough wards to keep an army at bay, never mind the few colleagues who sought to inquire about my welfare. Gale: Tara did her best to keep my spirits up, of course, but there's only so much one tressym can make up for one's entire social circle. And she was often gone seeking items to treat my condition. Gale: You're the first person I've spent any significant time with in a year or more. Spending time in your company, I realise that I may have left behind the greater part of my wit, and sensitivity, in my tower.

to having companions and friends and (potentially) a partner, who love him just as much as he loves them, who are excited to reunite with him and spend precious time in each other's company.

[johnslittlespoon]

Happy holidays, and welcome to the WOTA server's master–list of fics for the winter writing event! 🎄 We had a list of holiday, winter, and NYE related prompts to choose from and six weeks to write, and so many lovely fics came out of it. ❤️

This list will be updated as fics are posted, and you can also check out the collection on AO3 for easier browsing. Thank youuu to all the amazing writers who participated, can't wait for the next one! 🌈

✨ Fic List:

I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm Prompts: Cuddling For Warmth, Hot Chocolate -> by @johnslittlespoon [2K | G | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Winter, Domestic Fluff, Cold Weather, Cuddling, Tough And Sweet AU] Since We've No Place To Go Prompt: Snowed In -> by @rangerelizabeth [20K | M | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Christmas, Fluff, Getting Together, Miscommunication, Modern AU, Slow Burn, Eventual Smut] By The Fireside Prompts: Fireplace, Cuddling For Warmth -> by @eternallytired17 [2K | T | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Christmas Fluff, Post-War, Established Relationship, Cuddling, Dirty Talk] May Your Days Be Merry And Bright -> by @happy-days19 [3K | T | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Christmas Fluff, Post-War, John & Gale Going All Out For Christmas, Tooth-Rotting Fluff] I'll Have A Blue Christmas Without You Prompts: Seasonal Depression, Missing Home -> by @c-goldthorn [2K | T | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Christmas, Homesickness, Gingerbread Cookies, Mutual Pining] ...I Like A Christmas Special -> by @nicijones [3K | T | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Christmas, Sharing A Bed, Feelings Realization, Found Family, Egan Family] To Be There With You -> by @brotherwtf [18K | M | Gale Cleven/John Egan | First Christmas, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, First Time, Age Gap] An Alternate Christmas -> by @middlingmay [2K | NR | Gale Cleven/John Egan | Hockey AU, Single Parent AU, Photographer AU, Modern AUs, Cat Dads] ─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

[sunrae08]

I'm practicing my writing so here's a little short story of how I think it went after Gale first got the Netherese Orb

_________________________________________

"You're just going to leave me? After everything we've been through?"

"Get out of my sight."

Gale Dekarios, Archmage of Waterdeep, watched in horror as his beloved goddess Mystra cast him out of her domain. The sparkling stars and smell of rosewater disappeared, and he found himself alone in his tower.

The severity of everything that had occurred washed over him in waves, and he fell to his knees. His body shook as the overwhelming pain overtook him. The Netherese orb that had bound itself to him was burning inside of his chest in such a fury. It was unlike anything he had ever felt, a pain so hungry that he almost believed he would die immediately. The book from whence it came lay scattered on the tile floor, pages burnt and unreadable. Gale crawled his way over to the book, desperate to find some clue on how to manage this thing inside of him.

"Dammit, it's useless!" he shouted, slamming his fists onto the ground. The tears began to stream down his face. His lover, his goddess, his everything had abandoned him and left him to die with this mistake. And he had no idea how to fix it.

"It's over then. My magic is gone, my purpose in life- gone. Mystra- even Mystra is gone. I have nothing" Gale cried, curling into a ball on the floor. "Nothing."

For how long he lay there in silence, he did not know. The sun began to set, and rise again, and set again. He didn't move, he didn't speak, he didn't eat. The pain was so unbearable that he could not find it in himself to do anything. The only thing on his mind was the possibility of his death soon. It was a fitting end, to die here on his tower floor- all alone.

"Mr. Dekarios what in the hells are you doing?"

Tara. The tressym's words floated over to him, and he slightly raised his head to look at the creature. His only friend, who sat on the open window, concern evident on her kitty face.

"Leave me alone, Tara."

"Is that how your mother taught you to treat your friends? Hm? I don't think so." the cat flew over to him and layed her paw on his arm.

"I'm not feeling- ah- feeling good." he groaned. The orb bit at him, for lack of better word, the sensation causing him to flinch and bite his lip.

"Is it that book? I told you not to read it. Oh and look at the state of it, what did you do?" Tara glared at him. "You read it and then burned it?"

Gale shook his head. "No it- Tara the magic in the book it's *inside of me*"

Tara took a step back and examined the wizard. Her eyes caught sight of the glowing symbol on Gale's chest.

"Oh dear..."

The tressym didn't know what else to say and simply crawled into the wizard's arms. Gale held her close to him, the warmth of her next to him a comforting feeling. In that moment he could almost ignore the gnawing pain inside of him, he could almost believe that he might be okay.

"Thank you," he whispered to her, "thank you for being here before I go."

"Go? Go? What are you talking about?" Tara slid out from his arms and stared at him. "Explain."

"It's over, Tara. My magic was consumed by this- this- orb and my powers are gone. I am weak. I am in indescribable pain. Mystra has abandoned me, cast me out. I have nothing. I am going to die... and I deserve it." he whispered the last words. His eyes dropped to the burnt Netherese book, proof of what he had done.

"Gale Dekarios you are not going to die. Not if I have any say, which I do. We will put our minds together and fix this."

"How?! How are we going to fix this, Tara? I've ruined everything! I have nothing else to live for. It's over. I am giving up."

"No. And I will not be arguing over this or I shall go and tell your mother." Tara flew over to his bookshelf and began throwing books off, flipping through them. "We will figure this out, and if we die trying then so be it. But we are not giving up."

Gale couldn't help but smile a little then. His magic and way of life might be gone, his lover forever out of his reach, but he would always have Tara. And that was something, right? How could he claim he had nothing to live for when he had such a wonderful friend by his side.

"Very well. We'll do it your way for now." he replied, crawling over to pick up a book.

[lemonlamblaura]

My Husband is the God of Pestilence - chapter 27

The morning began just like any other. Kallamar and Lilybell woke up, Lilybell had her breakfast, and Kallamar headed out into the temple while Lilybell got ready for the day. Saleos gave his report about what had happened during the night (nothing as usual, thankfully), he absorbed the prayers his worshippers had made, and he blessed any followers that crossed his path. Even though he had made his way through the whole temple, he didn't see any sign of Narinder. Shamura said he would be waiting for him. Where was he?

He got his answer after stepping foot in his study. Narinder stood at the window, staring out at the work going on outside, workers running about, and crystals shining in the early morning sun.

"Quite the auspicious project," he mused, his eyes narrowing as a worker tripped and dropped an entire pane of crystal into the sand. "A waste of energy and material, though. You have a perfectly good temple. Remaking it is just a grandiose display of wealth."

Kallamar didn't feel comfortable saying anything. He knew anything he said would be instantly parried and met with further condescension. He took a moment to gather his sword and globus cruciger from his shelves. If the time came for him to defend himself, he wanted to be well armed.

"Come," said Narinder. "We've wasted enough time."

The two gods traveled quickly through the ether through the cool waters of Anchordeep, past the swamps of Anura, and up the western mountain. A sharp wind blew past Kallamar's cheek as they came back to the physical realm. Snowflakes kissed his warm cheeks, melting away almost instantly. Below them was a grand sight of the surrounding lands, Darkwood, Anura, Silk Cradle, and Anchordeep barely visible from such a great distance. On the other side of the mountain was Green Meadows, a large valley of grassland, and beyond that was Misty Jungle, a great rainforest supposedly full of creatures Kallamar had never seen.

Falzeph was nowhere in sight. The only place to go was up, and so began the treck to the top of the mountain. They walked in silence, with Narinder leading the way. He barely seemed to notice the snow crunching under his feet, and the flakes speckling his fur like tiny stars.

"So, what's the plan?" Kallamar called, hoping to not be met with sarcasm.

Narinder scoffed. "The "plan" is for you to stay out of my way. You'll only-"

A sudden, severe gust of wind cut him off, knocking him backwards off his feet. Kallamar barely had a chance to react before the wind caught him too, sending him flying down the mountain. Cats always land on their feet, and Narinder managed to steady himself against the gale, bracing against the intense wind. Kallamar was not so lucky. He tumbled down the harsh rock for nearly ten seconds before finally grasping a hunk of boulder to stop himself from falling further. His whole body ached and cried if pain, and the wind was still blowing.

He could barely peek through squinted eyes, snow and small rocks striking him in the face. There was shouting up ahead, but he could barely hear it over the screaming wind. He teleported out of there, returning to the place he had been only a few seconds ago.

Through snow, pebbles, and a storm of black feathers, Kallamar saw a massive black eagle with ten strong wings in mid-combat with his brother. Narinder's crown had formed a long scythe, with the red eye appearing at the point where the hilt met the "blade". The cat tried to take a swing at Falzeph, but the other god easily dodged, making another flap of their wings to blow Narinder back again.

Kallamar took this chance to take out the globus cruciger, feeling his hand and the magic within heating up the metal. Aiming it at Falzeph, he unleashed the magic, sending a chain of bullets at the eagle. A simple flap of wings sent the bullets back at him, though, and Kallamar had to quickly teleport away before he could be struck.

So, long range weapons won't work, at least with them facing me, Kallamar thought, sitting in the ether for a moment while Falzeph turned their attention back to Narinder. But, surely they must be expending a lot of energy, flapping their wings so much. They will tire themself out, and then we can strike. Or...

He returned back to the physical world directly behind Falzeph with his sword unsheathed, striking downward at one of the other god's wings. Falzeph cried out in pain as the blade met with one of their wings, severing it from their back. They turned, the wideness of the remaining wings briefly knocking Kallamar back. With their back turned to Narinder, the cat quickly caught on to Kallamar's plan, and swung his scythe down, slicing off all the wings on the right side of Falzeph's body. Blood and ichor joined the snow caught up in the wind, a flurry of red, black, and white.

Falzeph let out a screech as the swirling wind reached a new speed, forming a vortex around them and forcing the other gods away. They waited, watching a small tornado form around the other god. They had no chance of hitting them now. Better to wait and see what would happen and wait for their chance to strike again.

The tornado suddenly moved in Narinder's direction at lightnings pace, hitting him before either god could react. Narinder went flying, being sent down the mountain at a greater rate than he had moments ago. Kallamar watched as he became smaller and smaller, until he disappeared behind a cliff.

When Kallamar turned around, he was face to face with Falzeph. There was a terrible pain in his chest. He looked down and saw that Falzeph had their hand straight through it. He could not see, but their bloody talons breached the other side of him, his heart still beating in their fist. They reached up with a foot and kicked him away, their arm releasing from his chest, still holding his heart. Kallamar could swear he still felt it beating inside him. The pain wasn't as bad as he'd expected. Maybe it was shock. Blood pooled around him as he realized he was lying on the ground, staring up at the sky. He thought he heard Narinder call. Maybe he just imagined it.

No, this couldn't be happening. He had to go home to Lilybell. What would happen to her if he was gone? He couldn't bear to think of her crying because of all this. No, he had to get home. But his body was so, so heavy, and he felt so tired. So tired. His eyes closed, gasping breaths he didn't know he was taking slowing down.

Lilybell... I love you... I'm sorry...

*

"... we also need some more toothpaste soon, and some soap and candles."

"Thank you for letting me know," Lilybell said quietly with a sweet smile. "I will try to get some more supplies soon."

Lilybell left the women's quarters with a small sigh. Seems like supplies had to be ordered every single day. It couldn't be helped with so many people living at the temple. At least she didn't have to take care of it herself. It would help if people weren't so wasteful. Then again, she reminded herself of just how unintelligent some followers could be. If they weren't kept busy, they would get up to mischief. Sometimes they would, even if they had things to do.

A supervisor came up to her. "My lady, Alinor did not show up for cleaning duty this morning. Have you seen her?"

The mere mention of the other girl's name almost made Lilybell's eye twitch, but she did not give herself away, keeping a neutral, pleasant face. Don't lose your composure, or people won't respect you. "No, I haven't. Are you sure she was on duty today?"

"Yes, my lady. If you're not busy, could you help me find her?"

"Yes, of course." After checking on crystal production and the kitchen, she would have nothing else to do all day except find some way to occupy herself. At least this gave her something to do.

After checking the entire temple and not finding a trace of Alinor, the two of them decided to search outside. The supervisor went east around the building while Lilybell went west. A winding staircase had been built on the outside wall of the temple, which would lead to the second floor. A similar one was at the other side of the building, and would meet at the roof. Once the new temple was completed, the old temple would be gutted and made into the new main hall.

Lilybell did not ascend the staircase, but instead waved down some workers to ask if they had seen Alinor. They dismissed her, urging her to go back inside where it was safer. Frustrated, but seeing their point, she turned to go before an annoying, familiar giggle reached her ears. It seemed to be coming from above. Looking up, she saw a brief flash of shiny golden scales.

Of all the places to be! Lilybell put her hands on her hips irritably. "Alinor!"

The girl peeked over the side of the open, incomplete floor. With no railings or barriers to speak of, it looked like the edge of a cliff.

"Come down from there! It's not safe up there!"

She just rolled her eyes and disappeared from view.

Shaking her head frustratedly, Lilybell began the long climb up the stairs. Halfway up, she began to pant, and she thought to herself that she really ought to get more exercise. Living a cushy lifestyle had been more detrimental than she realized. Soon she was at the top, level with the roof that would be transformed into a ballroom. Alinor was flirting very obviously with a few workers who were hanging on her every word like flies on honey. As Lilybell approached, they stopped smiling and straightened up, trying to look like they had not been slacking off.

"What's going on up here?" Lilybell asked.

"Nothing you need to be concerned about," Alinor said patronizingly.

Lilybell sighed, and plastered on a small smile at the workers. "I'm sorry to break things up, but Lord Kallamar will be most displeased if he finds out we are behind schedule."

That was enough to make them return to work. Alinor threw her a heated glare for ruining her fun. "What's your problem?"

"Alinor, you were meant to assist with cleaning duty today. It's your turn."

"So you're the only one here who gets to have any fun?"

"You know that isn't true. You're being childish."

"If I want to have a little fun before work, I'll do it. You don't run this place, Kallamar does."

It took all of Lilybell's effort not to scowl at the other girl. "You must address him as Lord Kallamar."

"He likes it when I call him that. He told me so."

"He didn't. He doesn't like you, Alinor. You have to stop this."

"He kissed me, you know."

All of Lilybell's anger suddenly disappeared and was replaced with shocked numbness. And then, it was gone just as quickly. Of course Kallamar would never do that. She was just trying to get under Lilybell's skin. She took a deep breath, finally breaking her calm facade. "That's a lie."

Alinor dared to smirk, knowing she had touched a nerve. "He kissed me and told me I was the most beautiful girl in the whole world."

"No, he didn't."

"We had sex, too."

The sheep just laughed in disbelief. To think she was going this far! "Stop it, Alinor. You aren't fooling anybody."

Lilybell turned to leave before Alinor jumped forward and grabbed her ponytail, yanking hard. Lilybell let out a pained shout, her hands flying up to her hair to try and remove Alinor's. This only made Alinor hold on tighter, leaning in close to Lilybell's ear to say, "if that's true, then why are you so upset?"

It all happened so fast. Lilybell reached back and hit Alinor in the face, making the other girl back off. It was only temporary, however, and Alinor lunged forward again, knocking Lilybell off her feet as both girls fell to the ground. Lilybell attempted to guard herself from Alinor who was trying to strike her, hitting her arms and hands instead of the intended target, her face. Their screaming was enough to alert people, and the workers Alinor attempted to flirt with earlier came rushing back.

"IT SHOULD BE ME!" Alinor screamed as two workers pulled her off Lilybell. "WHY DOES HE CARE ABOUT YOU?! I SHOULD BE WITH KALLAMAR!"

Another worker gently helped Lilybell to her feet. She was only bruised, but badly shaken. Alinor stopped struggling as she watched the two approach the stairs, and the other workers foolishly released her, believing the conflict to be over. When the right moment came, she sprinted in Lilybell's direction. Lilybell heard her coming, and turned to see her charging straight at her with a crazy look in her eyes. Her motive was clear: she was going to push her down the stairs.

What could she do? Alinor was going too fast to successfully stop her from the front. Trying to do that would mean getting bowled over, or shoved to your doom.

So Lilybell moved out of the way.

Alinor realized far too late what she had done. With an alarmed shriek, she rolled her ankle on the first step and tumbled down, down, down, each thud sounding farther and farther away. Lilybell watched helplessly as Alinor finally reached the bottom, her body broken and bent in places it shouldn't be. Down below, a worker came to check the body. But his shocked expression told Lilybell all she needed to know.

Everyone surrounded her as Lilybell began to feel numb once again. Some people were shouting angrily, others sounded concerned. She didn't hear them. All she could do was stare at Alinor's unmoving body. An image of Trenaty's still face flashed through her mind. She hadn't thought about the starfish in years, but the old familiar ache was felt in her chest as tears unknowingly filled her eyes.

"I..." The shouting seemed to be growing louder. Someone grabbed one of her arms, then the other one. "I... didn't... mean to...!"

The next thing she knew, she was locked in the bedroom with no recollection of how she got there.

*

Kallamar awoke with a start, sitting up so suddenly that he felt dizzy. His hand went to his chest to feel where Falzeph had injured him, feeling for the gaping, bloody hole. Surprisingly, there was nothing there. His chest was whole, though there was a noticeable tear in his robes. He was completely fine, albeit quite confused.

After taking a moment to collect his thoughts, he looked around to find that he was surrounded by opaque white fog. Here and there were small piles of skulls. He was sitting on a flat, round stone with markings carved into it. Chains descended from up high, disappearing into the distance. Where the hell was he?

"You're dead."

He gasped, twisting around to see Narinder standing over him with a calm, expression. "Falzeph is dead as well. I will deal with them later."

"This is the afterlife?" Kallamar asked in shock, continuing to look around despite there not being anything else to see. Everywhere around him was fog, skulls and chains.

"No. It is a place between worlds, the gateway between this world and the next."

"But I am dead."

"Yes."

Kallamar let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. He would never see Lilybell again. It was all over. He didn't want to go yet. He didn't want to die!

"Let's go."

"No, this can't be happening. I cannot leave Lilybell behind all by herself! I still need to finish my temple! What about my disciples? What about Shamura?"

"You won't be going to the afterlife."

Narinder stepped forward with a hand extended. Kallamar could only stare in confusion. Wasn't this the end? If he wasn't going to the afterlife, what other option was there?

Not knowing what else to do, he took Narinder's hand. Suddenly, he felt a surge of power go through him, stronger than the devotion he felt from his followers. Narinder seemed to grimace a little. Was he in pain, or discomfort? Kallamar felt his tentacles lift off the floor. He and Narinder were ascending into the sky.

The scarf Lilybell had made him two hundred years ago, now worn from age, slipped off his wrist. It was never seen again.

*

Kallamar awoke with a start, gasping as air filled his empty lungs. Snowflakes fell down around him. There was a pain in his chest. For a moment, all he could do was lie there, hand to his chest. It was whole, with no signs of damage, not even a scar. Narinder knelt over him, sweating a little. He held the heart of a god in his hand.

He sat up slowly with a grunt, staring down at his chest. He was fine? Wasn't he dead? He should be dead. Not even a god could survive having their heart ripped out.

He noticed a trail of blood starting with Narinder, in the shape of his footprints in the snow, and leading to the dead body of Falzeph, mangled and slaughtered. Kallamar realized it must have been Falzeph's heart Narinder was holding, as he felt his own hammering in his chest.

"I'm not dead."

"Not anymore," Narinder huffed. "You're welcome."

Kallamar slowly looked up at the cat in disbelief. "You... brought me back?"

"I am the god of death. Of course I could."

No, that wasn't Narinder's purpose. Shamura explained that Narinder's job was to deal with souls as they made their way to the afterlife. They made no mention of bringing people, much less gods, back from the dead. His purpose was different from Kallamar's, who could give and take pestilence at will. This went against the very laws of nature.

"There was a death at your temple," Narinder said calmly. "You should return. I will deal with the body and report to Shamura."

Kallamar could only stare at him. "Does... will you tell Shamura about this?"

"I have revived Shamura before. They know."

Kallamar could hardly think, but if Narinder was giving him the chance to leave, he would rather go home and consider everything that happened. He teleported away, while Narinder gave the dead body not far away a cold glare and brought the heart to his teeth.

Everyone swarmed him the moment he came back. All Kallamar cared about was Lilybell, but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Lord Kallamar!"

"It's terrible, Lord Kallamar!"

"It's Lady Lilybell, my lord! She murdered Alinor!"

That shook him a little from his stupor. Go see Lilybell, get the full story, comfort her. He realized he didn't want to think about what just happened. In fact, he would rather forget about it completely.

If he were to die again, what would Narinder do? He knew the cat hated him. Would he refuse Kallamar rest? Submit him to endless mockery and torment? Or simply allow him to stay at the gateway for all time with no hope of leaving? Or do something he couldn't even think up?

Either way, he couldn't let this happen again. He needed to be more careful. He could die. He couldn't die.

[baldurs-gape]

Pulling githtails

Sometimes people had very peculiar ways of making friends. If Gale had ever felt like he was not very well equipped in such a skill, watching some of his current tadpole infected companions made him reconsider his own aptitude. Sure, there were some like Karlach who were larger than life, laughed and drew in all those around them. She had an easy time making friends wherever she went. So did Wyll, his earnest determination didn't even have to wear people down, he simply existed in their orbit and people let him in. By contrast, Shadowheart seemed to choose being aloof, something something Sharran teachings about connections leading to nothing but grief. It was fine, that was her choice. Meanwhile Lae'zel seemed to simply not care for forging bonds. She was on a mission and that was all that mattered. Those who could assist were welcome to share her space in order to obtain their goal but that was it. Last but perhaps most fascinating was Astarion. His aloof manner and poorly disguised vampiric nature were made all the more interesting by his incessant need to poke and prod at people.

At first Gale had been irritated. He didn't enjoy Astarion's digs at his abilities, his past with Mystra or even his fashion sense. Yet every one of his rebuffs was met with a laugh and quip rather than Astarion leaving to pester somebody else. Truthfully, Gale had thought Astarion would be more like a cat that needed a subtle approach until he was accustomed to his presence. Instead, he found himself being treated like a cat but by a five year old who tugged at the cat's tail for attention and perhaps even trying to poke at the limits of a boundary. Either way, the end result was that Astarion's snide comments became less about Gale himself and more about life in general. And, actually, Gale found himself rather enjoying Astarion's company once he'd calmed down somewhat. It also afforded him the luxury of watching the same process of making friends take place while comfortable in his own standing.

After a fight where they were all covered in viscera, blood and who knew what else, Astarion gave Lae'zel a long look from head to toe. In another situation it could have been misconstrued as something more but now Astarion just smirked.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a githskanky," he announced and grandiosely pointed towards the river. "Please wash off that stench before I lose my lunch."

Grumbling, Lae'zel stomped past but made sure to flick her braids near him and Astarion got a glob of mushy red on his cheeky. He scowled, nose crinkling and looked at Gale.

"I guess she took double lessons in fighting at the cost of etiquette lessons." As if that would put someone like Astarion off. If anything, he was spurred on as he trotted after Lae'zel. "Wait! Lae'zel!"

She was wading into the river, already half stripped and rinsing the worst off her armour. Head snapping up, she took in the approaching vampire.

"What?"

"I had the sudden concern around your relations with water," Astarion explained. However, his mouth was already pulled into a badly hidden grin, betraying the incoming joke. "You're of the lizardy sort and they're not usually very water oriented in these parts. It would have been a rather unfortunate oversight on my part to not ensure you are safe. After all, I'd hate to be respinsible if our merry little group had to remember you as their githsanky."

A helmetful of water was hurled rather expertly in Astarion's direction, drenching him. But it didn't wash the smile off his face.

Astarion didn't ease up. At dinner he asked Lae'zel about washing up and whether she was their 'dishyanki' which earned him pot washing duties for the rest of the week. No matter how much he complained about not actually using any of the equipment, the whole camp seemed in agreement he needed to atone for his terrible jokes. At least Gale was more than happy to accompany him to the quiet spot with the flat rock that plates could dry on. And maybe the dishes weren't the only thing getting wet, something which Astarion's dick very much approved of (so did Astarion but that wasn't something he was ready to think about yet).

Trading with the woman wanting the githyanki egg was fortuitous. They had all been carrying rather a lot of scavenged wares they had no use for. To be able to offload it all was a relief. Until Astarion spied a ring in the woman's wares. Trying to bargain for it hadn't worked, neither had he managed to pickpocket her much to his frustration. Determined to get the ring, even if it was outside of his means, Astarion did the only thing he could.

"Lae'zel," he said in a singsong voice. "I know you plan on leaving this plane as soon as we're successful in our mission. Having all that gold would only weigh you down, it would be useless to you in the Astral Planes where you'll fight glorious battles."

"Spit it out."

"I don't suppose I could pretty please alleviate you of such a heavy burden?" Astarion paused, fluttering his lashes. At the lack of reply he shrugged. "No? I could make it up to you in other ways." Hearing that made Gale's heart clench. "Just think, I am a dab hand with swords, I could sharpen yours each day for a tenday. Consider it a loan maybe? I'd pay you back whatever you gave. And with interest! What say you? Be my githbanky?"

Lae'zel marched away from him without dignifying a response. Pouting, Astarion tried to play off his disappointment as over the top dramatics. That evening through, he couldn't hold back the surprised little "ooh" as he spotted the much coveted ring on his bedroll. His eyes met Lae'zel's but neither of them said anything.

Any worries Gale had about Lae'zel's intentions towards Astarion were laid to rest that same evening when she rather loudly and in a prolonged manner claimed Shadowheart as her own. Come morning, sat around for a snack of nuts and fruits, Astarion leaned into Shadowheart's personal space.

"So, you played githyanky?" A glare was his answer but he was undeterred. "Guess you must be on best behaviour or you'll get a githspanky."

"I wouldn't let her hear you say all that," Shadowheart replied airly. "She can get quite irate when tired. Let's just say she stayed up very late last night."

"Oh I know. I think we all heard." Not missing a beat, Astarion bumped his shoulder against hers. "We'll blame you for the githcranky."

A blade was under his throat and lifting his chin to turn away from Shadowheart. Lae'zel glared down at him. With zero sense of self-preservation, Astarion let out a giggle.

"Oooh. A githshanky!"

The flat of the blade smacked gently against his pale cheek before it was dropped back down. Lae'zel seemed to feel she'd made her point and turned away, already fully armoured and ready for the day. Her head turned as he looked at Astarion with a crinkle at the corner of her eye as though smiling.

"No. A githpranky."

[wordingg]

Is it literally the last day of the year? yes. did i really wait until the absolute last day to make my 'year in reading' post? yes. will anyone care? absolutely not.

THIS YEAR WAS A GOOD YEAR FOR READING! I read exactly 100 books this year (wow such a nice round number). My top genre this year was fantasy (65 books), followed by LGBTQIA (50 books), and coming in third is romance (32 books). Of the books I read 58% were digital, 37% were print, and a measly 5% were audio (sorry audiobooks).

My favorite books that I read this year!!! (in no particular order)

His Secret Illuminations/His Sacred Incantations by Scarlett Gale. It really feels like the author of this duology took all my preferences, kinks, and favorite tropes, threw them in a blender, and hit 'fuck it up'. These books have role reversal, religious guilt/oppression, a high fantasy setting, a plot that revolves around toppling the powers that be and standing up for yourself, plus! PLUS! a muscle mommy. Like, shut. Just shut up okay.

Mr. Warren's Profession by Sebastian Nothwell. I'd like to list every one of Sebastian Nothwell's books, because I think I've read almost all of them this year, but that would be messy so I picked my favorite one. It's a gay regency romance with a wet cat/golden retriever couple, including a former sex worker, love reaching across divisions of class, and discourse on industrial revolution era factories and union busting. Like, just take my money okay? No more words need to be said.

True Love Bites by Joy Demorra. Is it the werewolf/vampire romance? Is it the alternate Victorian England setting? Or is it the triumphant subversion of every tired awful romance trope that I hate? Honestly, any of these would have made this book a big hit with me, but the combination of all three really put it over the top. This is such a lovely book and I am gnawing on the bars of my enclosure waiting for the next one.

Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle. I'm really sad that I have waited this long to read Mr. Tingle's traditionally published books, because this book slam dunked my ass. After I finished it I just sort of laid on the floor for a bit and let my five year old use my ribs as a trampoline. I love the protagonist of this book so much. She was so rich and vibrant, flawed but also perfect. She felt real to me, you know? And then to layer that with a story about religious guilt and oppression (I really don't want to find out this is a new thing with me), disturbing imagery, and a quest to do the right thing and help strangers? Yeah, I'm in. You got me. You got me good, Mr. Tingle.

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. I went into this book knowing almost nothing about it, but it absolutely grabbed me by the throat within the first few chapters. It's very hard to describe, but I'm going to give it a try. Imagine that Alice in Wonderland was real and also it happened in the American South. Now, imagine that after Alice came back to reality, she put a curse on her hometown which allowed creatures from Wonderland to come through and just like murder your grandma occasionally. Now, it's modern times, but your small town is under the dark clouds of both a generations old curse and an evil corporate overlord and you're just an angry homeless girl who's more likely to bite than to say thank you and somehow you've got to save your brother from both the curse and the corporation. Oh yeah and there's a hot bisexual guy living in a sentient house who sort of has a thing for you, but in a slouching goth boy way. There. There, I think I did it.

Honorable Mentions (also in no particular order): - The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (Xianxia version of "if this burn goes any slower, I'm gonna lock you both in a closet, oh wait nevermind we've already tried that multiple times.") - Born of Scourge by S. Jean (WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SAD? LOOK AT THIS LITTLE GUY! LOOK AT HIM! HE WAS BORN ALREADY TRAUMATIZED!) - Delicious In Dungeon by Ryoko Kui (I only read one manga series this year and this was it. It more than earned it's spot.) - Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell (if you thought this book was bad, you're wrong. I'm sorry. I called Mother Theresa in hell and she agreed with me. yeah, you're wrong.) - All About Lust by Gong Lyong Kim (I believe that this is what art school is like for everyone until it's proven otherwise.)

What books did you guys read this year? Did you guys read any of these books (please shout at me about them I'll shout back)? Got any good recs?

[queen-scribbles]

Look at her, she's so pretty <3

Sorry, I'm just so happy about getting to play my half-orc girl again, and I love her so much. Tala and Bottlen return! So far today we've:

picked up Wyll and Karlach (I'm now using Wyll instead of Gale, bro is still using Lae'zel. so cleric, ranger, warlock, and fighter for the party)

Rescued Mirkon from the harpies(one got one-hit K.O.'ed by Wyll's hellish rebuke and we both laughed until we choked). It took two tries bc he died the first one and we can't have that. Must save the adorable tiefling child.

Tala lived up to her Acolyte background, passed six(ish?) passive History checks like the giant nerd she is xD

Bottlen hassled some woodland critters while Tala was encouraging Alfira in working on her song

I got EVEN PRETTIER armor(and then no good screenshots. Maybe if/when we continue :3)

Bro kicked me out of him talking to Lae'zel bc he was totally flirting and didn't want me to catch him. (fair, I will do the same once we actually HAVE Halsin and Tala can flirt him up)

Bottlen decided to switch his animal companion/familiar from spiders to ravens bc he hates drow/dueregar and spiders are Llolth-affiliated. The familiar raven's name is Quothe and I enjoy that immensely

I made Wyll Pact of the Chain (instead of Blade, like in Maggy's game) and his familiar is a crab purely for the Maiming/Crippling Pinch. We're calling him Sir Snips

Bro has warned me he will start some fights wrt the hating drow thing and I commented we'd just have to pretend Tala was calming Bottlen down from offscreen since they don't have co-op conversation like in SWtOR, which led to us both laughing at the mental image of Tala just scooping/hoisting Bottlen into the air (bc half-orc vs deep gnome) and scolding him about playing nice whilst holding him, either like a feral struggling cat or hanging by the back of his armor

[ladytesla]

The Great Faerun Baking Show (part two)

I've decided I'm going to run with this anyway. It is a beautiful day in Faerun and I am a horrible goose fanfiction writer. There are several things I need to get done today, so obviously I'm going to not do them and write this instead.

For those of you who are just stopping by, I had a horrible idea a while ago and this is the result. I have no idea what's going to happen or who's going to win. I’m just going to roll a D20 ‘bake check’ for everyone and write out the results, including what everyone rolled so y’all know I’m not cheating just so my druid boyfriend can win.  The person with the lowest total score (out of a possible score of 60) goes home.

We've got the main 6 companions, Jaheira, Halsin, Minsc (and Boo), Minthara, Dammon, and my tav Medora (who y'all can just pretend is Alfira if you don't want someone else's tav in the story, since they're both female bards)

Week One, Cake Week: Star baker was Karlach, Minthara went home

Week Two: Biscuit Week, or "Viconia's Walking Florentine"

Signature Challenge: Sandwich Biscuits

Astarion: Bourbon biscuits. He and Shadowheart took a shot right when the bake started. He took a few more shots after that just because he could, and ended up making a bunch of vampire jokes with Noel Fielding. Despite the alcohol handicap, his biscuits turned out quite nice.

Dammon: Dulce de leche and banana biscuits. The dulce de leche overpowered the banana a bit, but the texture of the biscuits themselves were great.

Gale: Tara's coffee biscuits. He really wanted to bring back the memories of caffeine-fueled all-nighters at Blackstaff Academy. He also used a cat-shaped cookie cutter. The biscuits weren't exactly identical, and the coffee cream was a bit too runny.

Halsin: Lavender and vanilla biscuits. He used a duck-shaped cookie cutter because he likes ducks. They were all perfectly identical and the flavors were incredible. He got a Hollywood Handshake for them.

Jaheira: Malted milk biscuits. She wasn't able to get them as identical as she would have liked, and some of the biscuits were a bit underdone.

Karlach: Peanut butter and jelly sandwich biscuits. She was determined to have Paul like something with peanut butter in it. Unfortunately he still doesn't. They were also a bit messy. They were adorable in their messiness though.

Lae'zel: Pistachio custard creams. They were messy, and the dragon cookie cutter she used was a bit too delicate, resulting in some dragons missing their tails.

Medora: Raspberry and almond linzer biscuits. They had a lovely classic flavor profile, and were nearly identical.

Minsc: Coconut biscuits. He tried to use chocolate designs to make them look like tiny coconuts, but it wasn't completely successful. The flavor, however, was nice.

Shadowheart: Blackberry and earl grey biscuits. She tried to shape them like night orchids, colored with activated charcoal. However, the color made it hard to judge whether or not the biscuits were overcooked, and several of them were burned. The earl grey was so faint it was overpowered by the blackberry and the, well, burn.

Wyll: Empire biscuits. He grew up sneaking them from the kitchen as a boy, and wanted to stick to his 'classics done right' style. Unfortunately the biscuits weren't as crisp as Paul and Prue would have liked. Noel still stuck one in his pocket for later though.

Technical Challenge: Coconut Macaroons

(I think I'm going to list them from worst to best from now on)

11. Dammon

10. Shadowheart

9. Medora

8. Karlach

7. Lae'zel or Wyll (they both rolled a 9)

6. Wyll or Lae'zel

5. Halsin

4. Astarion

3. Jaheira

2. Gale

Minsc (honestly how does he keep doing so well idk man)

Showstopper: Gingerbread Showpiece

Astarion: To keep with his Brand, he decided to make a graveyard with several little gingerbread mausoleums and monuments. His, of course, was the biggest and fanciest one, with the door open and a little paper cut-out of himself coming out. Very tongue-in-cheek. Some of the monuments were sloppy, because he had so many he didn't have time to make them all super polished.

Dammon: He did his best to make an anvil, a hammer and a little piece of pulled sugar as the metal to be forged. He then discovered that despite working with molten metal on a regular basis, molten sugar still burns just as much when hitting the skin, and dropped it. He spent so much time on a backup sugar piece that the presentation on his anvil and hammer suffered a tiny bit.

Gale: His scene was an open book with a little wizard casting Fireball standing on the pages. There were huge cracks in the gingerbread book, but the wizard and his fireball were nicely detailed. He wasted a lot of time because he needed the spell piped on to the gingerbread to be ACCURATE DAMMIT.

Halsin: He created a peaceful woodland scene with trees, a family of bears, and some mushrooms. The largest bear broke, but he was able to fix it somewhat and prop it up against a tree. Bears lean against trees all the time. He hoped the judges might think it was purposeful. They saw right through him, however.

Jaheira: Years of helping her children with various projects has paid off. She somehow in the time limit created Wyrm's Crossing and just for show a poured-sugar River Chionthar. That earned her a Hollywood Handshake.

Karlach: She made an impressive replica of her tent, complete with a small army of teddy bear cookies. She even took the time to make little bears shaped like her friends and the judges. When asked if she hadn't wanted to make something more badass, she shrugged and said she could like cracking skulls and teddy bears at the same time.

Lae'zel: Her red dragon looked more like a guinea pig, unfortunately, so she changed her answer last-minute and said it was a giant space hamster. Due to its red color, though, the judges saw right through her story.

Medora: She attempted to create a lute, a mandolin and a drum. The neck of the lute broke and the piping on the drum was far from precise, but it wasn't a complete disaster.

Minsc: He made a treasure chest mimic. Originally he'd wanted the lid to open, but the hinge broke. It was still beautiful regardless, and quite big. It nearly took up the entire counter.

Shadowheart: Her little gingerbread cottage was already precariously lopsided, and when she turned to grab another piping bag it fell completely off the bench and onto the floor.

Wyll: He replicated his favorite park in Baldur's Gate out of gingerbread, even sculpting a statue with modeling chocolate. It was very impressive.

The Results

Our star baker this week with a total of 45/60 is Halsin!

And unfortunately, with a score of 9/60, Shadowheart has to leave the tent.

Feel free to play along, roll bake checks, and comment with what your Tav would make! Yeah I can't be stopped we're on to bread week next.

[nikatyler]

Zeph: Honour Run

dontlooktheredontlooktheredontlooktherewowathigh

👁👁

Do you understand how happy I was when I noticed this hug has been added to the mod ;-;

Shut up Shar, they're loyal to your sister

Met Balthazar, we're pretending to work for him for now. He's about to have his ass handed to him in a long rest or two. 😌

Got Shar's blessing just to fuck w her, and kissed right in front of her statue too.

Told Yurgir to kill himself and he did. Kids, don't do this at home.

Happy to report my wet pale cat actually knows how to say thank you now 😌

Zeph didn't lick the damn thing, they're on the same page as Gale here 😔

What's more satisfying than killing those shadow-cursed ravens with spirit guardians? Frying all these damn rats with them 😌

Shar temple cleared and we're ready to enter Shadowfell, but before that, let's go back to Last Light. I was terrified of this fight because of how poorly it went in my original Zeph run (Isobel abducted, everyone dead, and for some reason I just went eh it is what it is)

And mind you, that og Zeph run was on the easiest difficulty. What went wrong? Well, first off, I didn't utilize my characters properly, didn't know how to build them well, and I also did this right at the beginning of act 2, low level and low on spell slots 😭 But I've learned since then, and so…

Sure you're fine, Isobel, with those FOUR remaining hitpoints, sure you are. jfc you scared me kid

We killed Marcus right away (kisses on forehead Zeph and Astarion) but then the winged horrors got in, paralysed her, and kept crit hitting her. We were REALLY CLOSE to a disaster.

Luckily, Zeph was near with their spirit guardians beyblade and their reverbation and lightning charges build. They pretty much just went back near Isobel, dealing damage to the enemies instantly, dazing them etc, and I'm pretty sure they finished them with simple magic missiles. Slay Zeph 👑

After that, Zeph deserved a new outfit! I gave them the Selunite robe (well, they still have their other armour, we just transmoged it) dyed in their usual colour. I wasn't sure about it at first but after a few days of playing with it, it really grew on me!

Ugh, fine, fine, I guess I'll rescue his ass. But know that I'm only doing it for the tieflings and because I don't want to experiment in honour mode. One of these days I'll try to make it so that everyone but Wulbren makes it out. Accidents happen in a prison escape, yknow 😌

This was by the way my smoothest, bestest Moonrise prison break ever. Zeph sneakily took out the scrying eyes first with Shatter, to my surprise it was actually sneaky and no one noticed. Then the warden alone. Then the two guards. Then we saved the prisoners. So smooth. So satisfying. Slay

Do you think he's compensating something

Okay, fast forward, we've been stuck on act 2 for way too long in this save, we wrapped everything up, we did Shar's trials (well, two of them because screw the last one all my homies hate the last one), we Knocked on the door, let's enter Shadowfell now!

I was so nervous here, even though I did everything as always, but I was like, what if I missed something, what if Shadowheart will decide differently now. But, Aylin my beloved is free and we can go get Ketheric's ass now!

I could get rid of the vast majority of my mods but the hugs are staying. Why can't we just hug companions whenever in the vanilla game Larian why. (ok, not whenever, maybe after a certain approval level etc, but you get my point)

[astarioffsimpmain]

Find the Word Tag!

Rules: I'll give you five words. Find the word (or the closest approximation you can) in your works and post an excerpt. Tag others to play and give them new words too!

Thank you for the tag, @amoremagnificentbastard !

The words I got are Drink, Grasp, Rather, Warm, and Adore.

Drink from "Happy New Year"

“No,” you replied, nuzzling your nose into his sweater. “Most people go out, celebrate, have parties. I've never been to a New Year's Eve party, and I'd like to experience it just once. But I think it's probably a fantasy to believe I'd have much fun.” You chuckled. “I've never been the party sort. As you probably know by now, I'm the one you'd find sitting in a corner nursing a drink I've had for half an hour, listening to the outskirts of everyone else's conversations. Or I'd end up in the garage with the cats.”  “Yes, and I'm fairly certain you're aware at this point in our relationship - although a reminder never hurt - that I quite like that about you. Although I do think having the proper partner for an evening celebration is a fundamental linchpin that you have yet to experience.” The pride in his voice made you giggle.

Grasp from "Share With Me"

“I- mmf!” Your words were once again lost on your tongue as his delved deeper, exploring you with as much fervor as he did his favorite tomes. He stroked the length of his tongue against yours and a soft, breathy sound emanated from the back of his throat. You came apart in his arms, pulling him closer than you thought possible in this awkward position, and grasped onto his shoulders like the lifeline they were.  A month of hesitation, fear, and uncertainty were swept away in the crashing tide of Gale’s teeth colliding with yours as he used the grip he had on your hair to gently, but firmly, tilt your head to the side, giving him unparalleled access to your depths. You felt fingertips glide up the curve of your neck and you shuddered violently, a whimper ripping from your throat and falling onto his tongue like a prayer. The stiff hairs of his beard scratched the sensitive skin around your mouth as you moved in tandem with him, your mind barely remaining tethered to your body. Your hands wandered, exploring the dips and planes of Gale’s body as he leaned further over you, conscious of your pain even in the haze of passion. You learned him by touch alone, pressing your fingertips into the muscles and grasping at soft rolls and curves. He felt so foreign and yet so familiar; he felt like coming home.

Rather from "Cozy Up with Shadowheart"

“I can't believe I let you talk me into this,” Shadowheart scoffed as she raised a particularly large glob of pumpkin intestines into the air, then let it flop unceremoniously onto the ground beside her.  “Certainly we've had worse on us at this point,” you teased. “The blood, the viscera; I personally feel like the goblin guts were far worse.”. She shuddered. “Don't remind me.” She peered into her pumpkin. “You know this is its own form of viscera.” “Sure, but this is viscera that can become food with Gale’s help.”  She made another disgusted face through her chuckling. “Please refrain from telling me any more about how this disgusting orange gloop will end up inside of us. I'd rather not know.”

Warm from "Unsolicited Affections: Part 3"

But one of Halsin’s warm hands splayed across your back, and the other wrapped loosely around your neck as he pressed his thumb gently into the base of your chin, training your face upwards. When your hesitant eyes finally met his, you choked back another sob at the sheer compassion there. "My heart, I cannot promise you a cure for the intruder in your mind, nor can I promise you that every day from this day forward will be a kind one, but the one thing I can promise you, and will swear on my life this very night, is that you hold more allure to me, both your heart and your physical vessel, than you could even imagine. I am over 350 years old, I have taken many lovers. My heart does not stir lightly, but it does now, here with you. Your inexperience does not frighten me nor does it do anything to turn me away from you. If anything, it presents to me the opportunity to demonstrate all that love can provide for you, if given in the way you deserve. Will you let me love you?” Like a ray of sunshine finding its way through the clouds, a smile carrying a glimmer of hope broke across your face, pulling taut on your tear-stained cheeks. “Yes, Halsin.” you whispered and pulled nearer to him so that your lips rested nearly against his. “Yes.” The word breathed into his mouth seemed to light a fire scorching through him and he released a desperate groan into your mouth before taking it with his own, firm and passionate and all encompassing. Suddenly, his hands were everywhere and you could no longer tell where you ended and he began.

Adore from this Gale blurb, entitled, "Adore" (the closest thing I could find in this was "love." I can't believe I've never used the word "adore" in this fandom before, how tf? lol)

You wished for a life with him, and you hardly dreamed of anything else. How could he say no to you? How could he ever possibly say no when his own heart threatened to rattle the insides of his ribs in its desperate attempts to reach you? How could he deny you when you had given him everything and asked for nothing in return? How could he depart from you when you had become the very reason he lived? He dared not. His decision was made. He loved you, and refused to die for you. Instead, he would honor your wishes, and live for you instead.

Tagging, Darlings: @senualothbrok @brabblesblog @tociminna @morningsinparis and @sorceresssundries

Your words are: Caress, Share, Hold, Distress, and Embrace!

[wordtotherose]

"Is there a reason we've stopped to block the doorway?" Astarion drawls, taking notice of the building attention they are gathering as the weird group taking up the entrance to the brothel. "It better be a good one if you're looking to continue in this. People tend to get antsy when you block them from their evening's entertainment, you know."

He's stood practically plastered to Elizia's back having not expected her to stop dead at the door of Sharess' Caress. Gale and Shadowheart are behind him and behind them a small line is beginning to form. His lover has got the same tense posture, and he'd be willing to bet expression, that he has previously only witnessed when she has stepped onto a pressure plate trap before he's disarmed it. Part guilt, part embarrassment, and a whole lot of trepidation. He does, just in case, take a quick look at her feet to ascertain that this is not what has happened. The top step is clear of all nefarious meddling, as expected. Which has him returning to his question.

"Well?" He prompts.

She looks over her shoulder at him and he's pleased to know he would have won his bet. "Is there, at all, any way you can think of to get the other two to leave without asking questions? Any fucking way at all, I will only draw the line at murdering them permanently."

He lowers his voice to match her hushed volume, leaning in slightly. "Unfortunately not right now. Gale has been muttering his way through their lunch menu since we started heading here. I mean, I could kill them and stash them until we get back to camp if you don't mind making more of a scene than we are already but that's the best I've got at such short notice."

A shake of the head accompanies a deep sigh. "I thought that might be the case. This is going to fucking suck."

And with that she's pushing the door open and striding in with her head high. Astarion follows, curiosity thoroughly piqued. The Caress is the same as it has always been.

Continue Reading on AO3 or under the cut

Plush, deeply coloured furnishings, wait staff dressed skimpily enough to entice but not scandalise the casual lunch goer. There's even familiar faces working the bar and not so terrible singing coming from behind the velvet curtain separating the ground floor into two. He follows Elizia as she leads them up to the bar, watching her closely. He's not sure if it's his mind playing tricks or if she really has started to sway her hips more, and has she actually plastered on a mask of a flirtatious smile or is she grimacing? It's hard to tell when they're not alone or in camp. He barely can tell the differences still and she flirts with him daily on their travels.

"Well, well, well!" A silky voice interrupts his train of thought and he gets a delightful view of Elizia straddling one of the bar stools instead of sitting down like a normal person. "Look what the cat dragged in. It's been a while, wildflower, you certainly are a sight for sore eyes."

The barmaid, possibly the owner of the place if he remembers correctly, lounges over the bartop, the cut of her dress leaving very little to the imagination. Elizia, to Astarion's absolute horror, leans forward herself to provide her cheeks for two loud kisses from the woman before sitting back. It's like he's walked into an alternate reality where Elizia is apparently friendly and charming rather than sarcastically helpful and abrasively short-tempered. There's a sour feeling in his stomach as he stands over her shoulder, completely ignored by this human woman who kisses Elizia in greeting. Without getting a scowl or punched or any sort of repercussion at all. The others don't seem to notice anything out of the usual, instead claiming a table further in to wait out Elizia's apparent gods damned reunion.

"As are you, Ruby," Elizia says, sly and with an actual honest to gods wink, it takes everything Astarion has to not say anything lest he start squawking in indignation, she's never winked at him! "I take it business has been going well?"

The woman- Ruby- waves a hand from side to side. "Good enough. Not as good as when you were around to bring in the hordes but well enough, well enough. I have a room going spare if you're looking for one? Same split as before and all, better if your gentleman here is pitching in."

Astarion chokes on air he doesn't even need. Elizia recovers for him, a much more familiar edge to her voice now. "Not for sale, I'm afraid. I told you years ago, I'm done with it. I don't need the money anymore."

Ruby nods, pushing a glass of wine towards Astarion as he gets his wheezing under control. He takes it gratefully, swigging it down in one despite the taste.

"Yes, you did. I don't think I said it then but I am truly sorry for your loss, flower, he was a gentle one, that kid. Didn't deserve the hand fate dealt him, neither of you."

It takes a second before it clicks in his head. A conversation in a dead field plays out in his memory. Elizia's demeanour barely shifts but he knows her, or at least knows her tells, well enough to jump in at last, steering the conversation elsewhere.

"Are you going to introduce us, darling, or am I to stand here like a particularly fashionable accessory whilst you two catch up?" He keeps his tone light, teasing, and is relieved when she takes it as the lighthearted jab it is.

"I don't know," she teases back, flashing that falsely carefree smile at him. He decides he hates it. "You are just intimidating enough to be an incredibly attractive bodyguard."

"Oh you'll need one of them if you're sticking around," Ruby says with a chuckle that has Astarion looking at her with narrowed eyes.

"And why is that?" He asks.

Ruby nods subtly to a number of guests scattered across the room. "I still get enquiries after you, kid. You are apparently rather hard to forget."

"Oh good," Elizia says through gritted teeth.

Astarion leans in close to her, voice low as possible so only she hears. "Say the word, darling, and we are gone. Or, if you'd rather they go, I will be more than happy to oblige. With great relish if you don't object."

She kisses his cheek and reassures him that she'll be fine, no spilt blood necessary. He backs down reluctantly.

"Dangerous indeed," Ruby muses. "If you're not here to work, what are you here for after so long?"

"Can't a girl just come to visit?"

"Are you paying for this visit?"

"I'm paying for lunch, surely that's good enough?"

Ruby shakes her head. "You know that ain't where the real money is. What about you, you've been here before, haven't you? Hard to forget a face like that."

Astarion looks between the two women, wondering when he'd lost all control of his day. "Um. Hi. Yes. And no."

"You sure about that? We got plenty of types to suit your every fancy, all of them I'm sure would be happy to spend time with the two of you, or just yourself if I've read you wrong."

"No! I mean- yes, we are but no, thank you, to your...types." he splutters his way through, hands waving to really add to his overall look of idiocy, if he could blush he'd be red as the carpets. None would recognise him now as the irrestible seductor he was.

"We're sure," Elizia says, swiftly saving him from further rambling. "We've got business to attend to, I'm afraid."

It's only when Elizia has steered them away and down through the curtain into the adjoining room that he realises she still never introduced him to Ruby. He's lengthening his stride to catch up and quietly ask her when Elizia is suddenly not on the ground and is being spun around in a circle by a very handsome, very happy drow. Who is wearing very little. Elizia is laughing, crying to be put down weakly as she gets spun round and around. Astarion, on reflex, has a blade out ready to take his first opportunity to defend Elizia. Finally letting her go, the man hands Elizia off to a very similar looking female drow who wraps her arms around Elizia's neck and kisses her. For a good time longer than is socially respectable between close friends. The male drow has a hand on Elizia's back still, terrifyingly low and very, very, familiar with her. Astarion stows his blade as Elizia gently pushes the woman back, saying something he can't quite make out.

There's greetings again and another hug between them all and then Elizia is stepping backwards into Astarion, deliberately slotting her back against his chest and covering his hands with her own when he wraps them around her stomach. He props his chin on her shoulder, all too aware of her slight shaking and the tension she normally would have lost from being in his hold by now. He takes deliberately steady measured breaths in the hopes she'll follow his example. She does, thankfully, and the shivering lessens gradually even as she makes introductions.

"So, you two are related and yet offer yourselves up as a package deal? My, you have rather more incestuous friends than I expected, my dear," he tests the waters with a quick kiss over the perpetually bruised bite mark on her neck, she doesn't shy away but doesn't relax any either.

"We are twins, yes, but we are not so corrupt as you are no doubt picturing. Should both our services be called upon we may kiss for their pleasure, and coin, but that is all." It's aggravating how pleasantly the drow responds to his jab, how easily he brushes off Astarion's less than gracious judgement.

"I take it you worked together then, dearest?" He asks Elizia, stamping down on the stupid prickle of jealousy trying to scorch its way up his throat.

"From time to time," Elizia says, not a hint of her discomfort to be seen or heard. "The younger ones tended to go for these two and I often had the elder, something to do with looking young and only being a half elf compared to their hundreds of years."

"Plus she looked absolutely delectable every night. Could charm her way into anyone's gold purse this one," the sister says, clearly thinking it a compliment but Elizia's shift further back into him said enough. "But I take it you know that already," she carries on with a wicked smile, "is he the reason you left?"

"Alas, no," Astarion answers before Elizia can, "I haven't had the pleasure of her company for much longer than a couple of months. Right time, right place, and we've been travelling together since. We've only come back to pass through, won't be staying long, I'm afraid."

Elizia pinches the back of his hand subtly.

"Or maybe we will!" He rushes to add. "Who knows! The whims of fate and the Gods and all."

"Well..." the twins share a look before the female drow, he really didn't pay any attention to their names, continues, "that's...lovely. I'm sure."

"It is," Elizia agrees before extracting herself from Astarion's hold. "It's been lovely catching up but our friends are ordering food and I'm the one paying so we should go make sure they aren't going mad. I'll try and come see you again soon. It's been too long."

There's another round of hugs and then Elizia is taking his hand and leading them back to the others.

"That was far less painful than I expected," she murmurs to him as they approach the table.

Gale is already tucking into a bowl of something steaming, a book spread out in front of him. Shadowheart is methodically picking apart some sort of pie looking bored. He does feel a bit of pity for her, the wizard is not the best dinner conversation. They slide into the chairs left opposite the two, glasses of identical red wine ready and waiting. Astarion starts inspecting it whilst Shadowheart leaps at the chance to have an actual conversation rather than sit in silence. For a cleric she is not best known for her patience nor comfortable relationship with her own thoughts. He supposes he isn't much better but certainly he's less desperate about wanting his due attention.

They've barely been sat down for five minutes before the first of them comes over. Completely uninvited, a tipsy, giggling kaliodescope of a bard is swinging herself into Elizia's lap without so much as a by your leave. Astarion watches, jaw dropped, eyes wide in dismay, as the frankly horrifically dressed tiefling boldly exclaims how much she has missed Elizia these past few years before sticking her tongue down her throat. Gale casts sleep on the girl quickly and that's the first one disposed of. Elizia applogies to them with a world weary look in her eyes and nary a blush to her freckled cheeks. Shadowheart accepts the apology and their conversation continues as if nothing has happened.

The second assailant nearly has Elizia and Astarion's blades through their neck when they approach on silent feet to clap their hands on Elizia's shoulders to shake her in excitment. They don't kiss her at least. Astarion desperately wants to touch her in any number of possessive, and some deprived, ways to put a stop to it all but with every unexpected touch Elizia tenses further and further so he can't. He keenly knows the hunted look in her eyes and he doesn't want to add to it. So he keeps his hands and thoughts to himself as they eat.

The third, and final, person is a human man who looks for all the world like a perfectly decent type until he's crowded Elizia into an alcove on her way back from the bathroom. He watches, empty wine glass cracking under his grip, but doesn't intervene. Won't intervene until Elizia gives him a signal to because she is her own woman, his equal in strength and loyalty and if she can trust him to flirt his way through every conversation then he can trust her to handle herself how she wants. This is all beautiful, wonderful growth that he is sure he will look back on with pride until he smells her blood.

Things happen rather fast at that point.

Shadowheart shouts an exasperated "For fuck's sake, Astarion" as his chair clatters to the ground loudly but he's not listening. He is, as it happens, across the room throttling the man and spitting threats into his face until he runs out of creative ways to describe cutting off his fingers. He lets go and the man bolts. Elizia is stood, seemingly still processing everything.

"Where did he hurt you? Can I touch you, love?"

She nods slowly, eyes following his hands as he inspects her forearms and wrists then tilts her head from side to side to check her neck.

"You're bleeding, Tavaril, I need you to tell me where because I'm quickly running out of places to check that won't have me tracking him down and gutting him in an alley."

A flash of recognition crosses her face and then she's catching his hands in her own, drawing them up to her left ear. His index finger comes away with a small drop of her blood on the tip, her earring was pulled, that's all.

"You've gotten very sensitive about my blood, haven't you?" She sounds like she's mocking him but he can hear the quiver of nerves too. "You didn't do a thing when everyone else was feeling me up but as soon as someone else spills a tiny bit of my blood..."

He pulls away, unhappy with the bitter twist of her lips, the dip in her brow.

"I think you'll find that the first couple of times I was seconds away from feeding them their own tongues. Ask either of the other two, I've practically been twitching the entire time."

"That's a lot of restraint for you."

He shrugs, smiling down at her. "What can I say? I trust you, darling, and I didn't want to make things worse. A first for me, I know."

Her eyes soften and she holds her arms open. "You won't make it worse."

"Mm," he hesitates a moment longer before stepping into the offered hug, tucking his face into her neck to breathe her in. "I can't fault them their adoration for you, I suppose. You are magnificent, after all."

He feels more than hears Elizia's laughter.

"Would you like me to, shall we say step in, next time? Should there unfortunately be a next time."

"Only if you don't mind, I just... it's exhausting and they're more likely to back off quickly if I have a dashing companion to cut in."

He pulls back to check that no actual damage has been done to the tip of her pointed ear. "Flattery will get you everywhere, my dear. I will gladly make a nuisance of myself for your honour. What was that man even doing to tear your piercing like this?"

She rolls her eyes and brushes his hand away to feel it herself. "He never liked my ears, reminded him that I was half-elven and he had some history or some such with elven neighbours and long story short he would cover the tips when he wanted to look at me. He's an idiot and I didn't often let him have his way but when my brother was especially bad, in the winters especially, I had little choice. He paid at least."

There's a fair few things he'd like to say to that but what's done is done and Elizia looks more comfortably herself than she had and he doesn't want to ruin it. Instead he lifts her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to the backs of her knuckles.

"I happen to love your ears, my sweet, my half-elven love."

"Oh really?" She asks, teasing properly this time. "I hadn't noticed, what with your fixation with them every time we slept together. Also, laying it on a little thick there."

Astarion groans, dropping his forehead against her still lifted hand. "Do you have any idea how many filthy things I want to say to you right now? You're torturing me, Elizia."

She pats his cheek with her free hand. "You can tell me all about your innuendos later. Gale is about to be propositioned by a man I know has a thing for scholars of all things and I want to see how long Gale takes before he realises he's basically talking dirty to him by telling him about his book."

"Torture. Elizia. Torture. You are a devil in disguise."

"Just a bit of a professional whore," she says, tugging him to the awaiting disaster.

He intertwines their fingers fully, allowing himself to be led. "The best of us are."

[3xm-draconic]

Token of Affection. (werebat cyris and astarion story.)

Summary: Midsummer is here and love is in the air. Cyris gets the perfect gift for Astarion.

The underdark was…less intimidating than Cyris thought it would be. Yes it was dark and yes it had a lot of scary critters skittering about it…but it was no more scarier to him than the sanguinewoods back home. At least they had all the mushrooms they could ever want.

Speaking of shrooms, he, Gale, Wyll and Roger were out looking for specific ones for a…well a mind flayer who did not want to eat their brains and even promised to help them find out more about their seemingly altered parasites.

They had come across a weird tower thing with mechanical contraptions and a mushroom-flower that ate magic, Cyris kept that thing away from Gale not because he thought Gale would eat it but because it might eat his magic and Gale already had to eat magic to survive anyhow.

Having two magic-eaters in one party was going to be a nightmare…

“So…I’ve been tracking the stars before coming here and by the tell of em’ we've been on this little adventure for about 3 weeks now” Roger deduced “and that marks us being adventuring buddies for 21 consecutive days”, Gale eyed him “what are you getting at exactly?”

Roger mumbled “I think it’s a holiday today…but I can’t remember…”, “it’s Midsummer Night!” Wyll joyfully said “a day of love, romance, merriment!”, Gale ginned “ah yes the Long-Night, a night to spend with your chosen partner in the fine weather, making merry in the warm afternoon…” Gale frowned “and yet we are here in the underdark…”

“What are some traditions you guys do at Midsummer? I usually just drink a bunch and eat chocolate” Roger shrugged, “I’d get my cat a little gift and make her a special breakfast” Gale smiled, “I’d usually just enjoy the sweets they make today  too” Wyll shrugged.

“In my village young couples would go out into the forest and “hunt” one another, usually it would end in a big picnic in the lavender meadow, it was like a giant game of hide-and-seek” Cyris smile…he could now fondly remember the nights he and his brothers would try and keep his sister Jezebel's boyfriend away from her by scarring the ever-loving shit out of him…ah good times.        

“Hold up” Cyris said, “what is it?” Gale asked him as he readied his staff, Cyris sniffed the air “minotaurs…”

At camp since Cyris was away it was up to Halsin and Astarion to cook, Allegra had bagged a Rothe for them to eat tonight.

“HEY!” Karlach suddenly leapt up from her seat at the fire “you know what today is?”, “...midsummer?” Allegra pondered as she butchered the Rothe, “EXACTLY!” Karlach screamed “IT'S THE LONG-NIGHT!” she beamed.

“The Long-Night!” Shadowheart smiled, “what’s going on?” Lae’zel grumbled “what is this “Long-Night?” should I be worried?”, Halsin chuckled “no, no Zelly the Long-Night is a time to celebrate the ones you love, a time to spend together under the stars in love” he assured her, Lae’zel pondered “is that not what I do with you all the time?”. 

Halsin blushed and chuckled “well today is a day to do it extra, Zelly” he smiled.

Allegra chuckled “what will we be doing then? I have a night of hunting the underdark for famous “menzoberranzan midnight dark rum” as gift for Rogger”, “I found a new book for Gale, it’s on rare alchemical tinctures, I’am sure he’ll either find it interesting or he’ll at least enjoy eating up it’s magic” Shadowheart chuckled, “I made Wyll an owlbear plush” Karlach smiled “I got inspired to make him one after adopting Lucy” she said as she petted her Owlbear cub.

“Is it customary to give gifts on this day? Very well, I will give Halsin a gift he will most enjoy” Lae’zel said as she walked into the underdark, “Zelly? What?...oh there she gose…I don’t know if I’am going to get the head of some beast tonight or what as a present now” Halsin laughed as he cut up potatoes.

“You got anything planned for Cyris, Astarion?” Karlach turned to him, “I…” Astarion had never really celebrated Midsummer…not before and certainly not after Cazador… “I don’t know…probably I’ll…treat him to a wonderful night of…pleaserful delights~” he purred. 

The whole camp nearly freaked out as they watched Cyris and Roger drag in an unconscious Gale and severely wounded Wyll, “FUCK WHAT HAPPENED?!” Karlach screamed “minotaurs…and then we fell down a hole…” Cyris grumbled as he pulled a broken shard of a war-axe out of his ribcage.

He whent into his tent to lay down.

Astarion followed him, he had never been in Cyris’s tent before...

It was messy…but in an organized-chaos sort of fashion, there were bottles of bourbon that had been turned into flower vases for lavender sprouts of several different species, a tiny hearth to warm himself by, black candles enchanted to give off pink colored light, pink bedspread, pink pillows…

“You really like pink” Astarion chuckled, “it’s my favorite color…well besides black” Cyris said as he relaxed on his bed surrounded by all the pastels, “black and pink…what an odd combo” Astarion hummed as he snuggled up next to him, “well…I like pink because it’s bright, soft and reminds me of strawberries and I like black because it’s dark, soothing and reminds me of the night…of the time when I use to feel…safe” he sighed “you got any favorite colors Starry?”. 

“Hmm…dark red, like a wine or rich sanguine…crimson, I like it because…it reminds me of…bleeding hearts, the flowers not actual hearts darling~” he chuckled “I know it sounds corny but I love bleeding hearts, Cazador has a garden full of them and at night I would…when I could…I would sneak away to be there among them, there is a special breed that grows at night and actually glows…gods the color…stunning” he hummed “I’am not really one for flowers, can’t make good poisons out of most of them, but those ones…they just…they seemed so pretty…”, “you would like the trees in my village” Cyris smiled “they are the kind of red you described…deep and…dark”.

“Red trees?” Astarion pondered, “huge ones, tall as giants, I remember finding a n abandoned house up in one once…it was spooky” he chuckled.

Astarion shifted on the bed and got closer to Cyris…he saw something on his bedside table…a shattered mirror? 

“What happened to your mirror darling~?”, “...I…” Cyris looked away from him “I…can’t look…at myself” he sighed “I can’t stand my reflection…everytime I see myself I…I…I see the monster Whimbly has created”.

Astarion gently cupped his face with his hand “Darling~ you have such a handsome face” he murmured as he kissed his cheek “despite all the scars…you are gorgeous”.

Cyris smiled “your pretty good looking yourself”, Astarion sighed “I’ll have to take your word on that…I haven’t seen my face in 200 years, I can’t even remember to color of my original eyes…my face is just another shadow in my past…another thing he took from me”.

Cyris frowned…but then smirked.

“No…he hasn’t” he grinned triumphantly “I’am not going to let him~”.

Cyris sat in front of Astarion “Hold still”, “darling what?..”, “I need you to be still, If you squirm around I can’t match all your details”, “well just are you doing?” Astarion huffed.

“I learned a few spells while I lived at the den, one of which was “disguise self and alter self”, I…uh…used them for…well…” a cheeky grin danced on his lips “now…be…still.”

Astarion watched…

Cyris’s form shifted…

His dark skin paled, his hair shortened and curled, his ears became pointy…

Astarion gasped at the visage before him…the handsome high-elf with a sweet devious dimpled smile and sharp…yet curious eyes.

“Is…this really…me?” He murmured as he reached out to touch his…Cyris…the image's face.  

“Like what you see?” he said, not coyly, not seductively…a simple question.

Astarion gazed at the face…his face…

He smiled…

“I could kiss myself” he chuckled, Cyris leaned in as him and kissed him, Astarion never knew he had such…soft lips.

“w-wow…I-” Astarion’s face felt hot, “Anything else you’d like you to to?” Cyris…he..smirked.

Astarion smiled “I’d very much like another kiss darling me~”.

After dinner Astarion saw everybody all happy together.

Gale and Shadowheart were off by the underground river, Karlach and Wyll danced together, Roger and Allegra sang sea shanties, Halsin and Lae’zel curled up together by the fire with their gifts Lae’zel had carved him a little bear totem out of a piece of bone. 

Despite making hot, raucous love together…well technically with himself… Astarion felt…well like he didn’t do anything for Cyris.

Cyris had given him the gift of seeing his face again…what could he give him in return?

Astarion snuck out of camp while Cyris slept and the others were busy…he wanted to get Cyris the perfect gift…

He was careful and discreet…no one saw him as he creeped through the duergar camp, he knew that had something there Cyris would like, he could smell it.

“Throw out what ain’t useful lads” their captain bellowed, Astarion watched as one of the deep dwarves threw out a bundle of plants, in that bundle was exactly what he was looking for.

Pink Lavender.

It was a type Cyris did not have and it was his favorite color, it was perfect, now all he needed was to…

“HOLD IT!” one of the guards yelled, “Shit…” Astarion mumbled.

Astarion grabbed the flowers and made a mad dash out of the camp like an absolute lunatic…

They chased him to the edge of a rift, Astarion panicked “shit, shit, shit!” he focused maybe he could mist his way…

POOF

His vision swirls and then…

 “Oh…this…this will work…”

Cyris got up, he looked around for Astarion but he was nowhere to be found, Cyris’s heart raced “GUYS WHERE’S STARLIGHT!?” he panicked.  

(chirp)

Cyris looked around, there was a stage squeaking sound, like a bat’s…

(CHIRP!)

Cyris saw it, a tinny pure white bat hopping towards him, it looked like it was trying to fly…poor thing…was it hurt?

“Hey little buddy…you ok?” he cooed softly to it as he scooped it up in his hands. It had something in its mouth…a…flower?

(chirp, chirp, chirp!)

The little ghost bat chittered…then…

POOF

“OOF!” The bat turned into Astarion, he fell into Cyris’s arms “haha…eh, eh hem, hello darling~” he laughed “I…I got you a little something” he gave Cyris the flower he had nearly swallowed.

Cyris looked at it…and started crying…

“D-Darling~?! What, what's wrong!?”, “this…this type of lavender…it grows in my village…” he sobbed “how…how?” he pulled Astarion into a hug “t-thank you”.

Astarion smiled “your welcome sunshine.”

[johnslittlespoon]

There we go!

Now- John would either be flabbergasted or impressed. I cant really decide. Lmao

bikeriders clip for context | LOL okay when i saw this teaser yesterday, i was thinking about whether leaving!bikeriders au gale would have pulled stuff like that when he was younger, and a scenario immediately popped into my head; here's a little drabble :-)

we've established that when john and gale first starting seeing each other, john's pretty shy regardless of his impulsivity and not–at–all–discreet thirsting over gale. he's probably very respectful of gale's privacy, not prying a lot despite his curiosity when gale dodges certain questions, scared of being 'too much.'

but a few months in (maybe less knowing him), once john starts to figure out what buttons he can push and which ones he shouldn't, and once gale proves to him (many times) that he's not going to blow up at him or leave him when he messes up or they have arguments? it's game on in terms of making himself at home when he's at gale's place, and clinging to gale like a sloth, and being stubborn and nosy and less guarded, etc.

so one day he's at gale's house, and gale unexpectedly ends up busy with something; maybe he has to get on a lengthy phone call with some parts supplier for the shop, or a guy from the club shows up to chat. either way, john's left to entertain himself, and he's come straight to gale's from college so his laptop's dead in his bag and his phone's plugged in at the table charging. he decides to do a little snooping out of pure boredom.

nothing too out of line, and he's not looking for anything in particular, just trying to pass time, but he stumbles across a stack of newspapers in a drawer of gale's bookshelf that are dated back to like a decade and a half earlier, and of course this catches his attention, because people usually don't hold onto newspapers unless there's something interesting in them, right?

he sits himself down cross legged on the floor next to the drawer and pulls out the first paper and begins flipping through, scanning for anything interesting, and then he sees it:

'gale cleven of casper, wyoming was arrested and charged with 18 traffic violations, but not before reportedly running through 7 stoplights, hitting speeds over 85mph in two 20mph school zones, and causing damage to 4 municipal vehicles as a result of the pursuit.'

john reads it over three times with wide eyes, trying to imagine his gale being so reckless. he thinks about the gale that says "safety first" or "helmet on" every time john gets on the back of his motorbike, and the gale that can hardly handle letting john drive his bike around an empty parking lot under his watchful, nervous gaze, and he laughs to himself in disbelief, feeling like he's just stumbled upon a gold mine of information.

but gale walks into the living room, fondly asking "what's got you giggling in here?" before his eyes land on john and his box of papers. john feels guilty for about half a second before he's swept back up in his shock and excitement, waving the newspaper around and exclaiming "eighteen traffic violations? a 2500 dollar bond??" with unbridled glee, cackling at the defeated expression on gale's face.

"john–"

"–municipal vehicles? what, did you hit cop cars?"

"–i left you alone for twenty minutes–"

"–gale, c'mon, you gotta tell me the story now, you can't just leave me hanging!"

"you're the one who went snooping," gale grumbles, but john can tell he's close to caving, so he puts the newspaper back in the box and pulls himself to his feet, bouncing over to gale and placing his hands on his arms to walk him backwards to the couch.

he knows he's won when gale allows himself to be pushed down onto the couch with a resigned sigh, and john grins like a cat that's got the cream as he settles himself in gale's lap, waiting eagerly.

and gale can't even pretend to be mad.

[blackjackkent]

OK, on closer inspection, I think the Ominous Portal from the last post is actually the way out of this area. There's a closed door on the far side of the room which triggered an autosave when Hector got close.

And he is here. Alone. By himself.

This is fiiiiiiine.

Passing through the door gives us a few more loot chests, openable with the Sorcerous Sundries basement key we found earlier, and leads to another door labeled with a plaque that says "Restricted Area."

Really hoping this restricted area contains the Karsus book we're looking for and not, like, an aboleth.

*gulp*

The door, interestingly, is not labeled "Door" but "*Ramazith*" (asterisks included).

It's fine. It's all fine. Totally fine. Hector, you know that saying about curiosity and the cat?

OK, no disintegration, just another room with three more doors. These three are labeled *Elminster*, *Silverhand*, and *Karsus* respectively.

This meandering maze of rooms with the black fog-of-war abyss all around feels very reminiscent of some of the dungeons in BG2 (like the planar sphere). XD

The Karsus door sounds promising for the book we're looking for but let's go with Elminster door first because we like Elminster and hopefully that's not the disintegration room.

Hector's VA sounds very impatient about this but the truth is that, while I am busy snarking over here, he's definitely super excited to be digging around in the tunnels under the tower looking for this secret hidden lore. This is where history nerd and adventurer come together in a beautiful combination that is probably going to get him killed.

This place is hella trapped by the way. Luckily Hector is our lockpicker and trapbreaker so he's not doing too terribly at navigating this place by himself.

Unfortunately, the Elminster and Karsus doors give the notification "Target is Invalid" when I try to lockpick them, and they're not smashable targets. The Silverhand door appears to take us into another area entirely. So I'm assuming we need to go through the Silverhand door and find a key that will open the others?

-----

Oh dear this is a massive maze.

Four doors now - Abjuration, Transmutation, Illusion, and Evocation. Also more traps.

Going through Evocation puts us on top of a panel which, if we step off we get shot with ice crystals. Four more doors there - Foresight, Invulnerability, Gate, and Wish.

I wrote a whole puzzle pondering bit here and then I realized that only Wish is an actual door; the others shunt us back to previous rooms. Going through Wish gives us this room:

Aha. I bet this opens the Elminster room, and there's another sequence that opens the Karsus room.

Progress.

The Elminster vault has two chests and a display case on pedestals. The chests are just loot. The display case has another book!

Aha. This would be more excited if we still had The Necromancy of Thay, but we'll look anyway.

Honestly I think Hector's just as glad that he got rid of it, but do we at least still get loot for reading this book?

Nope! ^_^

OK, let's keep moving and try and find the Karsus book before Hector expires down here.

Silverhand -> Abjuration -> Silver gets us to the lever that opens the Karsus vault. It has quite a bit of loot:

The note, entitled "Magus Be Warned":

Luckily, Hector is not driven by hubris, just by a curiosity bordering on the maniacal (and sometimes by pure panic).

And now... the moment itself - the book we've been looking for. The Annals of Karsus. Hopefully we can also bring it with us to show Gale.

Eeeeenteresting.

Is the Orb the thing in Gale's chest?

The reward, a "Scroll of Dethrone", is a fairly scary-sounding spell:

And we were indeed able to pick it up to bring with us!

Sweet. Let's GTFO of here and get back to camp.

[expirisims]

Some Big Changes on the Way

One last errand with the Gale household and it's off to the household of Clark Gallo!

Yikes! We've got some households racking up back taxes!

Woah! A promotion AND proposal all in one day! Cristina is having a good day! And so is Shayne of course! Looks like these two have finally found lasting love!

Here we are with the Gallo family! It looks like a very pregnant Edith is out at the Spring fair!

Alright! Looks like Clark is leveling up his charisma skills! That will come in handy for promotions in his business career track.

Everyone is home and getting ready for dinner! Oh, yeah...I moved them into Terrell and Alyson's old house. Fortunately, Edith is a habitual collector and both she and Clark have well paying jobs so they can afford to keep it!

Just enjoying some games on his night off! Wait! Since when did Clark have an earring??

Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I didn't think it fit Clark very well. So...it's gone.

Aww...Edith brought Cristy up to watch the news.

OMG! She autonomously began to teach Cristy to talk! How adorable!

Speaking of adorable!

I guess this qualifies as a nice family meal. LOL!

Everyone is off to sleep, including Kip!

Well at least they're in bed.

One more of the cat...you know I couldn't resist!

[baldurs-gape]

Hi I absolutely love your fics "Shores" & "Wish'n'bone"! I really like your characterization for both Astarion and Gale in your stories. I've read your past works when I was in the DBH fandom and it's a joy to see you in this fandom as well. I wish you a lovely day and I'm excited for future content!

YOU!!! I remember you from DBH! Oh man, what a blast from the past. It brings me so much joy that we've bumbled into another shared fandom. As you probably know from way back then, I love to reply to asks with a little ficlet of thanks. Think of it like a cat bringing you a leaf and leaving it as a gift on your doorstep.

One Night Only

Gods were cruel without even meaning to be. It wasn't intentional, they were simply unable to comprehend mortal desires and the passage of time. After the crown had been flung into the Chionthar, Gale had regretted it within days. He struggled with living in the Underdark, missed the sun fiercely but his love for Astarion was stronger. It didn't mean that getting used to such a change was easy. He tried, pushed himself and threw himself into his new life with as much vigour as he could. There was so much to study, so many vampire spawn to teach about the modern world. And yet the siren song of natural light still called. He saw it on Astarion too. Felt guilty because while he himself could go out into the sun if he wanted, Astarion did not have such luxury. Which was where the blasted crown came into play.

Locating it, retrieving the pieces and pondering its reassembly was all well and good but it wasn't the reality Gale wanted. Those long, dark days in the Underdark had been enough to help firm up his resolve. He didn't want the power of the crown, didn't want the alienating experience of godhood. As it turned out, Gale was a simple man with simple desires. Taking the crown, he shoved it into a bag and marched to the Stormshore Tabernacle with determination.

The bag landed at the feet of Mystra's statue in a gruff offering.

"I know you're not talking to me. But hear me out."

Nothing happened. Really, Gale shouldn't have been surprised but he was still disappointed. Leaving the bag there, he went back home, guiltily basking in the sunshine for as long as he could. What was unexpected was for Elminster to show up a couple of days after he got back.

"I have never seen anyone vex a deity more than you, Gale," he said by way of greeting. The fact he had literally walked into a nest of vampires didn't seem to bother him. "And the fact you do it with such lack of awareness is even more astounding."

"It's not just deities, Mystra isn't that special." Next to Gale, Astarion had his arms crossed over his chest in an open display of hostility. "I live with the man and if he doesn't vex me twice a day then I start worrying he's been replaced by a shifter."

Playing at being insulted, Gale raised a finger with a practiced "hey now" which was cut off by Elminster.

"I do not wish to get in the middle of a lovers' quarrel. Please remember, I am but a humble messenger of Mystra and have travelled far to see you."

Nose scrunching, Astarion shook his head. "Cheese and wine are in short supply down here. The closest on offer is three day old bulette blood."

Which was to say, Elminster wasn't welcome in their home and he considered Gale's private stash of treats off limits for their sudden guest. Something warm bloomed in Gale's chest at the protective aura Astarion exuded.

"As kind and generous as your offer is, I shall pass." Elminster pulled something from his pocket and passed a paper wrapped package to Gale. "A little extra from her, don't waste it. The orb shouldn't bother you anymore either."

As soon as the delivery was made, Elminster smiled. "It was good to see you. Maybe you'll find happiness this time round."

With that he was off and disappearing into the dark.

"Crusty old cheese fiend," Astarion huffed. "Just who does he think he is, waltzing into our home like that?"

"Mystra's Chosen." Oddly, saying that didn't hurt Gale. He didn't miss what he had, he sometimes missed what he'd thought he'd had. The two were very different thing.

Later, when Gale managed to get a bit of time to himself, he pulled the parcel out. Carefully unwrapping it, he stared at the amulet and the tag attached 'For the one you chose.' It pulsed with power and once upon a time it would have been his biggest wish to feed it to the orb which plagued him. Now, he examined it with suspicion and curiosity.

"What fascinating trinket are you poring over today?" As Astarion spoke, he walked up to Gale and hugged him from behind, hooking his chin over a warm shoulder. As he peered at the amulet, he hummed. "It's pretty."

"Pretty powerful." Gale gave up trying to inspect it for safety before showing it to Astarion, so he grabbed the tag and flipped it. "I don't trust it."

Eager hands grabbed for it, Astarion could never resist anything, especially it if had his name on it. He weighed the amulet and hummed. "Only one way to find out."

Before Gale could do anything as he turned, Astarion put the amulet on. It glowed a rich purple against his chest for a couple of seconds then became inert once more. Nose scrunching, Astarion looked down at himself.

"Well, at least it'll fetch a copper of two at some point."

All the magic was gone and Gale rached to touch the husk of an amulet that remained. As he brushed against it though, so did Astarion's hand. With a gasp, he froze and made to grab the pale hand.

"You-" Words eluded him and Astarion stared at him with amusement and rubbed at his chest absentmindedly. Gale tried again, "Astarion! You're warm!"

Both of his hand enveloped Astarion's newly warm ones. From there it was all too easy to lay a hand over his chest and feel the steady thump of a newly beating heart.

"Huh." Astarion stared at where Gale felt his heartbeat. "I thought something felt off. Assumed it was indigestion from spore infused blood."

A disembodied voice echoed in their heads.

The spell will hold until his next sleep, make the most of it.

A day. That's all they had. Gale wanted to rejoice and rage at the same time. If it was within Mystra's ability to cure Astarion of his affliction, she jolly well could have just done that rather than devise a spell that would remove it for a day. At least Astarion didn't seem to be taking such a dour view for a change.

"Well then, let's not waste it." He offered Gale and arm. "Shall we?"

Stepping out into the warm sunlight was a blessing and Gale almost missed the moment Astarion stepped out of the shadows. Face tipped up into the rays, his eyes fluttered closed and a soft sigh escaped his lips.

It was almost like their adventures all over again. Astarion could walk in the sun, needed no permission to enter an inhabited area. But more than that, he was living, breathing and warm, craved food and drink that had tasted like ash and vinegar for so long. Naturally, the first place Gale led them to was a tavern where he ordered anything Astarion desired. Just watching him eat, eyes closing in bliss as flavours exploded on his tongue was beautiful. As was discovering just what a sweet tooth he had. Pastries, cakes, fruits, they were all eagerly sampled and appreciated. Gale took such pleasure in bringing him new things to try, cost be damned.

"I don't think I can eat another bite," Astarion said, words muffled by a hand over his mouth as he tried not to burp. His other hand rested over his full stomach and he giggled. It was infectious and Gale laughed with him, on the verge of bursting with happiness.

"Let me show you some other delights."

That might have come out more salacious than intended because all Gale had meant was the wonders of ice cream and warming up lips with kisses between spoonfuls. Almost drunk on happiness, Astarion followed and they strolled the streets, hand in hand. As beautiful as the Underdark could be, its colours couldn't compare to the sun lit expanse of the living.

Alas, time couldn't stand still. They only had the day, sitting on a ledge near their return to the Underdark and they watched the sun dip below the horizon. Sighing, Astarion cuddled into Gale with a small shiver. The temperature was dropping now that there was no more sunshine to bathe in.

"Thank you." The words were a rarity to fall from Astarion's lips, to the point that Gale actually startled.

"Whatever for?"

"You must have done something to get me this. Whatever it was, thank you."

"You're not mad that it's just for one day? When it's probably in her power to make it every day?"

Softly, Astarion hummed and shrugged. "At least we got a day. It's more than I could have ever hoped for. Didn't think I'd ever see the sun again and live." A large yawn interrupted anything else Astarion was going to say and he snuggled more comfortably against Gale. They knew the spell was going to wear off when he fell asleep but Gale had hoped it would be a while longer yet. Judging by how Astarion forced himself to sit up, he had remembered too.

At every turn Astarion fought falling asleep. He got up, paced then sat down, tried not to slump, flopped back and stared at the clear sky. Prattling on about the stars, he kept yawning and stubbornly blinking to stay awake. Even when he settled against Gale's chest, he furiously tried to not fall asleep.

"Please don't let me go," he whispered and clutched at Gale's hand, pressing it against his still beating heart. "I don't want to go back."

Kissing his slightly sweaty forehead, Gale wished he could reassure and promise that it was all going to be fine. The best he could do was try and ease the harsh, bitter truth.

"I'll be there with you. I'm not going anywhere, not until you or time demands the breaking of our bond."

"That'll be the day I shall greet the sun again." As far as declarations of love went, that was probably as dramatic and deep as Astarion had ever been. It earned him another kiss which he yawned into.

Tucking him against his body, Gale desperately wanted things to be different. "It's okay. It'll all be okay. You need to rest. I'll watch over you."

"I don't want to."

Truth be told, Gale didn't want it either but it wasn't like they had a choice. Against him, Astarion jerked awake just before he nodded off. It was a futile battle, each desperate grasp at wakefulness was prolonging the inevitable. Gale buried his nose in white curls and clutched at Astarion tighter, palm still against his chest. He could feel the way Astarion went lax, how his heart slowed down, beats further and further apart, more and more faint until it stilled once more. In the cool night air, his body lost its warmth. Only the habitual breaths he tended to take gave sign that he was more than a dead body. Eyes squeezing shut, Gale tried to will away the tears. They had a day together in the sun, it was going to have to be enough for now. But he'd been given a new avenue to explore. One god or another was going to listen to him and give Astarion the freedom he deserved, even if it was the last thing Gale ever did.